[Category] Would like some input on a Misc. category
8 years ago
United States

Hello FF8 runners! I've been watching and becoming more interested in FF8 runs recently, and have wanted to do one for a long time. However, my schedule with work and school doesn't allow for such long speedruns, so I thought of a new custom category. I'd like input from current runners to iron out rules before I begin learning a route. I feel your experience running the game will help sharpen my idea.

So the concept is to use F1 (High Speed Mode) except for when you're able to move or be in combat. My goal is to establish consistent rules, which is difficult since it's a manually controlled "game booster". Here's my document so far, let me know if anyone has recommendations to make it more consistent or a potentially competitive category.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_nv2fOcCAC_kSZtTUrv7eOTD8Lec4e7TBzERWV-LiNk/edit?usp=sharing

Better category names are also helpful...

Finland

Hello Saintmillion! First of all, I know there's been a couple of people (me included) who have done this "F1 only" run except they/we haven't had the restriction to not use it during combat/movement. Imo that is more interesting since it creates different strategies for battles compared to normal any%, like using auto on Squalls trigger so you don't have to slow down for Renzokuken usage with the downside of not hitting all triggers. Of course, the usage of F1 is optional so if you want more control then you can turn it off. That can also create "strategy" as to when to use F1 and when not to.

I've been thinking more about this category while I've been writing this and I think the more rules you introduce, the worse the categoy gets; No rules allows for the most skill, you choose when to use it and what strats to use for battle. "F1 everywhere except not for battles" would allow for consistent battle times but also rewards people for knowing the movement well enough that they can move with F1 on.

In my opinion the rules for the kind of category you are suggesting would be too complicated and hard to monitor. In the end though, do what's fun for you.

That being said, all of the categories that use F1 are extremely arbitrary and very much just for fun because the high speed mode depends a lot on PC speed, I've noticed. It sometimes just doesn't seem to give you the full speed quite often.

As for the name, I've been calling it "F1 Any%" or "HiSpeed Any%".

United States

@Windows You make a good point. One of my fears was that too many rules would make it slightly too complicated. I played a bit more with F1 on while moving around and you're totally right, there is arguably a skill to be mastered in hi-speed movement.

Again, it is just for fun, and just for me as of right now. I'm not trying to reinvent running this game by any means. That perspective helps. I may just go the combat-only route. Er, non-combat only route.

@Furry hah, I that hadn't occurred to me!

I'll repost when I sleep on it (Though it's really just something I'm going to be doing, I'll post my thoughts here anyways after I play around a little more)

edit: last thoughts today, I guess my ultimate goal is to be able to do the any% and/or 100% routes as usual but with Hi-Speed activated in some way, but certain things feel TOO fast in that mode (like combat), and button presses sometimes register multiple presses and what-not. I guess there is also a discrepancy with different PC's going different speeds. I suppose it's something that will take some time to evolve if I choose to do it this way.

Finland

Yeah battles are really annoying to do with F1 mode without the other cheats on. When I did my F1 Speedrun I think I didn't have F1 activated for most battles. In the beginning I used auto for Squall Renzokuken and could use F1 during the renzo animation, for fish fin fight with cursor on memory it's pretty good, squall can use thunders fast and searching for limits is ok with F1. There's probably some strats for F1 any% that are faster than normal any% strats, like utilizing Squalls renzokuken more even in the late game. In any% it's not used much because it's slower than Irvine LB but against single targets it can be just as good if not better.

But yeah, getting a good time with F1 active is mostly about learning the movement really well, good practice for normal any% imo :) In case you want a reference point, my only F1 any% run that i've done was a 2h58min back when my any% PB was 7h40min I think.

Baden-Württemberg, Germany

I honestly can't make up my mind about that category. Mostly because it seems like something that is slightly difficult to verify. The timings for when HSM has to be dis- and enabled seem easy to get wrong.

That is not a 'No, we won't add it'. It's a 'The rules are should be more simple'.

United States

Yes, my main concern is consistency, and since HiSpeed is manually controlled this is difficult to nail down without making it overly complex.

I did some research. I saw that the combat transition screen looks like it goes the same speed when it's in normal and hispeed mode. However, after some testing, I found that even though the battle transitioned screen looked the same, the battle scene still loads faster on HiSpeed mode, even if you were to disable HiSpeed during the transition. Frustrating.

I opened up CheatEngine to see if I could find any useful addresses that could be used in an automatic F1 scripting program of some sort. I found the battle flag address (values 0 = no battle, 1 = triggered battle, in battle, and rewards screen). I'm no prgrammer, but theoretically if the process of turning HiSpeed off and on, before and after combat automatically, that would make timing a bit more consistent.

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